Changing Lives, One Toilet at a Time

Excretion in open has been one of the major issues faced by India for decades and decades. Our incapability in fighting with problem of open defecation raises several questions on coping mechanism and the system, which is nothing less than shame for a country of one billion. One of the major hurdles in solving the issue of open defecation, that I suppose, is imposing of control. Rural places of our country obviously lack apt sanitation amenities. The matter has been a victim of endless negligence by government bodies that have been in the position of power for the last several years. And whenever, by any chance, if some heed was given to the problem faced by millions of people every time they wanted to defecate, and authorities provided with appropriate funds, they were used in reckless government mechanism and of course corruption. Facilities like ‘Pay & Use’ remain limited to urban area, undoubtedly doing good job.  However, these are also the places where proper sanitation facilities are already in place. These essentials are however not able to reach to rural places where there is much more requirement of the same only because these places lack required infrastructure needed to support these facilities.One of the ways with which we could deal with this problem is through public-private partnership (PPP). This model of collaborating with private organization, leaving aside a few assignments, has mostly been successful in almost all the areas of services which fall under the government. Considering the demand from market of infrastructure needs, which is negligible, laying down projects with this model, could be of a great help. However, government shall have to ensure that private firms’ expectations of some incentive are met so that they can invest in the area.
One of such initiatives can be checked on http://www.domex.in/The next and of course the most important solution is to educate people and change their habits by conditioning them to not defecate public-ally. We do realize how odd it is for someone like me and you to defecate in public, no? That is precisely because we've been conditioned to defecate in a closed, hygienic place. For most of them in rural areas, defecating in open is part of lifestyle. In fact, as ridiculous as it may sound many of these people cannot even defecate in closed area just like we can’t defecate in open area! This is one of the major challenges that we would face to bring a closure to open defecation – Changing habits. However, just like Pavlov and Skinner’s experiments, we can try to bring this habit change by a proper reward and recognition system in place. Rewarding could be anything, from a social shout-out to cash, whatever is more feasible at the time.
The issue should be taken up as soon as possible and as efficiently as it can.
You can bring about the change in the lives of millions of kids, thereby showing your support for the Domex Initiative. All you need to do is “click” on the “Contribute Tab” on www.domex.inand Domex will contribute Rs.5 on your behalf to eradicate open defecation, thereby helping kids like Babli live a dignified life.